Aerating devices for producing streams of large cross-section



1960 E. P. AGHNIDES 2,962,224

AERATING DEVICES FOR PRODUCING STREAMS OF LARGE CROSS-SECTION Filed NOV.28, 1956 FIG. I

FIG. 5.

INVENTOR Elie P. Aghnides ATTORNEYS United States Patent AERATINGDEVICES FOR PRC DUCING STREAMS F LARGE CROSS-SECTION Elie I. Aghnides,46 W. 54th St, New York 19, N.Y.

Filed Nov. 28, 1956, Ser. No. 624,346

Claims. (Cl. 239-431) The present invention relates to fluid mixingdevices, particularly of the type adapted for use as a water aerator;andin this respect, the present invention is primarily concerned withimproved constructions of such water aerators adapted to produce ordischarge streams of larger cross section than has been possibleheretofore, under a given water pressure. By reason of this increasedcross-section of discharge, therefore, the structures of the presentinvention are particularly adapted for use as shower heads capable ofproducing aerated streams. The present invention comprises acontinuation-in-part of my prior copending application Serial No.135,645, filed December 29, 1949 for: Fluid Mixing Device, now US.Patent No. 2,811,340, issued October 29, 1957.

Various forms of water aerators are known at the present time and infact the basic forms which such aerators may take are set forth in myprior Patent No. 2,210,846. Such aerators in general ordinarily comprisea casing having a water inlet, a jet outlet and air inlets therein; andin addition, the casing ordinarily has therein an upstream diaphragm andone or more downstream screens so proportioned and arranged with respectto one another that a whitish bubble-laden coherent jet of wateremanates from the casing. The resultant bubbly stream produced by suchaeration devices are at the present time extremely popular; and therehas been a great demand for an aerating device capable of producing anoutput stream large enough to be used as a bathroom shower. In my priorcopending application Serial No. 135,645, identified above, I havedescribed various ways by which a stream of larger overall cross-sectioncan be created; and these include the delivery of several individualbubbly streams; the delivery of a bubbly stream having an annularcross-section; the delivery of a bubbly stream having a. variablecross-section; and the diverging of a bubbly stream by means of adeflector.

The present invention relates in general to such streams having enlargedcross-sections, but is particularly concerned with such streams whichexhibit better characteristics than any known heretofore. The presentinvention is based upon therecognition that in order to produce a bubblystream of large cross-section suitable for showers and other uses, it isnecessary to proportion the aerator for the production of a large amountof foam flowing at a much lower stream velocity than has been the casewith respect to the velocity of streams delivered by known commercialaerators. To do this, it is necessary to divide water of high velocity,delivered for instance by the aerator diaphragm, into many streamlets ofhigh velocity, and to provide ample space and appropriate resistancemeans within the mixing area of the casing so that the said individualstreamlets break up, mix with air coalesce and dischargewithout undue orwidespread overlapping of these individual streamlets, or of the foamproduced by thedifferent streamlets.

As a matter of practice, it has been found that when such overlappingdoes occur within the aerator, this overlapping decreases the amount offoam produced, de-

creases the cross-sectional area of the ultimate foam stream, andincreases the velocity of that ultimate foam stream. It has been foundmoreover, that structures which seek to increase the cross-section ofthe final bubbly stream by dividing that final product into severaloutput bubbly streams, actually impairs the quality and decreases thequantity of foam discharged from the aerating device; and this decreasein quality and quantity of the output stream occurs by reason of theretardation created by the aforementioned division of the final streaminto a plurality of individual streams, inasmuch as any such divisionstructure must include imperforate areas which impose resistance uponthe bubbly stream.

In accordance with the present invention, therefore, a maximum amount offoam flowing at very low velocity and having a very largecross-sectional area at't-he discharge end of the aerator maybe providedby an aerating structure which meets two conditions. First, it includesa diaphragm or other means for breaking up the Water at the inlet, andthis diaphragm includes a'pl-urality of spaced orifices of such sizethat-the aggregate circumferences of all said orifices will be manytimes the circumference of a single orifice delivering the same amountof water-at a given water .pressure at the inlet; and second; the saidplurality of orifices are so spaced and arranged with respect to oneanother, and the individual streamlets'delivered by the said orificesare. so directed upon extended resistance means'such as screens,baflles, shoulders, or plane surfaces, thatthe overlappingof' theindividual streamlets as Well as overlapping of the resulting aeratedstreams is decreased to a minimum; or completely eliminated. Structuresmeeting these requirements, therefore, are adapted to producev a verylarge amount of aerated water or foam, and the stream so produced maytake the form of asolidstream of I a plurality of spaced'individualstreams] having a .total cross-sectional area of more than eighteentimesthe total aggregate cross-sectional area of .the orifices. intheai'orementioned diaphragm.

It is accordingly an object of the present inventionto provide a Wateraerator that is adapted to deliver a bubbly stream of greatercross-section than it has been possible to produce heretofore under agiven water pressure.

Another object of the present inventionresidesin the provision ofaerating devices adapted. toproduceabubbly stream of largercross-section and.having, better. aerated characteristics than has beenpossible heretofore.

Still another object of the present invent-ion-resides in the provisionof an improved wateraerating devi'c adapted for use as a shower-head.v

Still another'object of the 'present'invention resides in theprovisionof'improved shower heads adaptedto'deliver bubbly streamswherein the quantit-y off-foam" is substantially greater than thatofdevices-known hereto- .fore'and wherein the quality of said foam is-substantially Figure 3 shows still another embodiment constructed inaccordance with the present invention.

Figure 4 illustrates a further embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4A is a view taken on line A-A of Figure 4; and

Figure 5 illustrates still another form of the present invention.

Referring now to Figure 1, it will be seen that in accordance with thepresent invention, an improved water aerating device adapted for use ina shower head, may comprise a casing having a water inlet adjacent theupstream end thereof, as at 11, a plurality of jet outlets 12, and airinlets 13. The shower head includes means for breaking up water appliedat inlet 11 into a plurality of individual streamlets, and theparticular means utilized in the arrangement of Figure 1 comprise webbedconical bodies 14 and 15 movable in bores provided in a plate 16 underthe control of a handle 17. Shower heads employing such webbed conicalbodies are in fact described in my aforementioned prior copendingapplication Serial No. 135,645; and in particular, the webs provided oneach of the said conical bodies 14 and 15 are tapered incross-dimension, whereby the amount of water passing the said webs anddirected upon resistance elements (mixing screens, such as 18 and 19),may be adjusted, under the control of handle 17, by slidably movingwebbed conical bodies 14 and 15 up or down in plate 16. In this form ofthe invention there are two resistance elements 18 and two resistanceelements 19.

It should be noted that water directed upon the aforementioned mixingscreens 18 and 19 takes the paths shown in dotted line in Figure 1; andby reason of the spacing between webbed conical bodies 14 and 15, andthe spacing between mixing screens 18 and 19, possible overlap betweenthose streamlets issuing from Webbed conical bodies 15 and those issuingfrom webbed conical bodies 14 is completely avoided. As a result, thedevice operates to produce a plurality of individually formed bubblystreams; and these individually formed bubbly streams then emanate fromthe discharge openings 12 of the device in a plurality of individualaerated streams.

The structure thus provided in the arrangement of Figure 1 must bedistinguished from other structures suggested heretofore wherein asingle bubbly stream is initially produced, and this single bubblystream is thereafter subdivided into a plurality of streams at thedischarge end of the aerating device by means such as an apertured plateor the like. Any such dividing structure must of necessity includeimperforate areas between the individual streams finally produced by thedevice; and these imperforate areas impinged by the foam already formed,seriously impair both the quantity as well as the quality of the saidfoam. The velocity of the streamlets delivered from the diaphragm means,such as bodies 14 and 15 of Figure 1, entrains the maximum amount of aironly when these individual streamlets flow directly through the meanswhich are provided for breaking and mixing the water with air; andaccordingly, the best quality of final aerated product is achieved onlywhen I individual aerated streams are produced.

Moreover, it should be noted that when an arrangement such as that ofFigure 1 is employed, the several streamlets from the diaphragm in eachindividual portion of the aerator serving to produce the aforementionedindividual bubbly streams, tend to overlap very little whereby the foamdelivered at the outlet ends 12 has the desired lesser velocity of flowand increased overall cross-section of ultimate foam stream discussedpreviously.

Another embodiment of the invention, also illustrating the principlesdiscussed previously, is shown in Figure 2; and in particular, the saidaerator may comprise a casing 20 having water inlet 21, foam outlet 22,and air inlets 23, therein. The said casing includes a diaphragm 24having a plurality of spaced apertures 25; and the said casing alsoincludes one or more resistance elements 26 which in this case aremixing screens. In this form of the invention there are three resistanceelements 26. Water passing through the said casing is broken up byapertures 25 in diaphragm 24 into a plurality of individual spacedstreamlets S, and these streamlets are then directed toward the upstreamresistance element and mixed with air and are broken up by the elements26, whereby a plurality of individually formed bubbly streams F aredischarged from the lowermost of the said mixing screens 26. It will benoted that the foam streams F are, as before, individually formed; andby reason of the spacing of the several streamlets S from one another,the ultimate foamy streams F are spaced from one another and overlapvery little at the discharge end 22 of the aerator.

When used as a shower head, the said aerator may further include acentral stud 27 carrying a deflector 28 thereon, whereby the saiddeflector 28 may be variably positioned with respect to dischargeopening 22 of the aerator, to decrease at will the size of the dischargestream. It will be appreciated, however, that stud 27 and conical bodyor deflector 28 may be removed entirely, in which event a substantiallysolid stream, comprising a plurality of individually formed and spacedbubbly streams, will be discharged from outlet 22. When the said body 28is removed, it may happen that the individually formed bubbly streamsfail to join or overlap adjacent the discharge end 22 of the casing; andin such an event, the perforations 25 in diaphragm 24 can be placedslightly closer to one another thereby to permit such a joining of theindividually formed streams at the discharge end of the aerator; or, inthe alternative, the discharge end of the aerator may be slightlyrestricted in cross-section, thereby to coalesce the individual bubblystreams into a substantially solid stream of aerated water.

Still another embodiment of the invention is shown in Figure 3, and thisparticular form of shower head is adapted to deliver either an annularbubbly stream or a shower of the well known needle type. The aeratorshown in Figure 3 comprises a casing 30 having air inlets 31, waterinlet 32, and a liquid outlet 33. The said casing 30 also includes aplate 34 carrying a plurality of grooved tubes 35 therein; and the saidgrooved tubes are slidable in plate 34 under the control of a handle 36.Each of grooved tubes 35, in the particular embodiment of Figure 3,includes two sets of grooves, namely, upper grooves 37 and lower grooves38, and the said tubes 35 also have blades 39 attached at the lowermostportions thereof. Tubular members 40 are also disposed within casing 30,and the said members 40 are adapted to rest above a blade 41 carried bya stud 42 which is screwed into the aforementioned plate 34, as shown.In the alternative, tubular member 40 may rest upon inwardly benttongues 43 formed adjacent the discharge end 33 of casing 30.

As mentioned previously, grooved tubes 35 may be moved up or down, underthe control of handle 36, to increase or decrease the flow of waterthrough the aerator. In the particular position of tubes 35 shown inFigure 3, Water is discharged past uppermost grooves 37 and I thestreamlets so formed impinge upon shoulders 44 on the upper surface oftubes 40, whereby the said streamlets break up, mix with air, and thendischarge as an annular bubbly stream past annular passage 45. Thisannular passage can be divided, if desired, into a plurality oforifices, providing the size of the aggregate orifices and the totalresistance upstream the discharge end of the device meet with therequirements of my present invention. If desired, stud 42 and blade 41may be removed, in which event a further bubbly stream will bedischarged past the central passage 46 whereby a substantially solidbubbly stream rather than an annular bubbly stream will be deliveredfrom the aerator or shower head.

To obtain a needle shower, handle 36 may be manipulated to raise tubes35 whereby blades 39 carry the tubes 40 upward into contact with thelowermost surface of plate 34. When the several parts assume this latterposition, water is discharged past the lowermost set of grooves 38 inthe grooved tubes 35, and emanates from the casing as a needle shower.

It will be appreciated that the blades 39 are, in the embodiment shown,provided to permit the raising of shoulders 44 of tubes 40 into contactwith plate 34; but the said blades 39 and the lowermost set of grooves38 can in fact be dispensed with since the screwing of stud 42 in aclockwise direction will also serve to raise tubes 40. Moreover, it willbe appreciated that when the stud 42 and blade 41 are provided, theinwardly bent tongues 43 are not mandatory, since tubular members 40will be supported upon blade 41. It will be noted that, rather thanemploying screens, such as are used in the embodiment of Figure 1, theembodiment of Figure 3 utilizes a resistance element which includesshoulders and extensive mixing surfaces for breaking up and mixing thewater streamlets with air to produce the ultimate bubbly stream; andwhen such shoulders and mixing surfaces are employed, the overallaerator is required to have greater depth, as illustrated, than that ofthe embodiment shown in Figure 1. I

Still another embodiment of the present invention is illustrated inFigure 4, and this embodiment again utilizes surface means to break upthe water and mix it with air. In particular, the said aerator comprisesa casing 50 having a diaphragm 51 therein which includes a plurality ofspaced apertures 52. Diaphragm 51 is, as illustrated, dished inconfiguration whereby streamlets emanating from the several orifices 52are spaced from one another and are inclined at an angle to thelongitudinal axis of the casing 50,. Mixing means are provided withincasing 50 for mixing the said streamlets of water with air entering thecasing via inlets 53; and the said mixing means comprise a plurality ofspaced tubular bodies 54 supported within casing 50 by cross-member 55.The streamlets issuing from the orifices 52 in diaphragm 51 are directedto strike the resistance element which in this case includes the members54 as well as casing 50, as shown by dotted lines, whereby the saidstreamlets are broken up and mixed with air, as discussed previously. Itwill again be noted that by reason of this structure shown in Figure 4,a plurality of bubbly streams are individually formed; and these bubblystreams are spaced from one another and overlap very little as the saidbubbly stream passes through casing 50.

The individual members 54, shown in Figure 4, may if desired take acorrugated configuration, as illustrated in Figure 4A; and when such anarrangement is employed, each member 54 includes corrugations 54a formaintaining the members 54 in concentric position with respect to oneanother and for spacing the said members 54 from one another. Moreover,if desired, the cross-member 55 may be dispensed with, and a shoulder 56may be provided adjacent the bottom of casing 50 whereby thecorrugations or protrusions of the outermost tubular member can restupon the shoulder 56.

Still another form of the present invention is illustrated in Figure 5;and this particular form of aerator again comprises a casing 60 havingan upstream diaphragm (not shown) adapted to form a plurality ofindividual streamlets S. Casing 60 also includes a resistance elementmade up of a plurality of tubular bodies which may have a taperedconfiguration such as at 61, and/ or which may have a steppedconfiguration as at 62, thereby to form shoulders 63. Each of thetubular bodies 61 and 62 includes a plate 64 supported within the saidtubular body by a cross-member and spaced in alignment with the severalstreamlets S whereby the said stream 6 lets S strike :plates 64, asshown. By this arrangement, therefore, a plurality of individuallyformed bubbly streams are produced within the aerator casing 60; andthese individually formed streams are positively prevented fromoverlapping one another by the provision of the tubular members 61 and62.

If desired, a coupling 65 may be attached to the lowermost portion ofcasing 60, thereby to restrict the discharge area of the aerator and tocause a coalescing of the individual bubbly streams. The said couplingmember 65 may, however, be removed whereby the final output of theaerator takes the form of a plurality of individual bubbly streamsclosely spaced to one another. The several tubes 61 and 62 are intangential contact with one another within casing 60, and accordingly ifcoupling 65 should not be used, air may enter the interior of theseveral tubes 61 and 62 by entering adjacent the discharge end of thecasing and passing upwardly through the openings between thetangentially contacting tubes. However, if coupling 65 is employed,thereby coalescing the individual bubbly streams into a substantiallysolid stream, separate air inlet ports should be provided in casing 60.

It should further be noted that instead of having only a single stream Sstriking plate 64 in each of the tubular members, the diaphragm of theaerator may be so arrangedthat a plurality of spaced streamlets aredirected into each of the tubular members and these spaced streamletscan strike the plate 64 and can also be adapted to strike laterallyagainst the inner walls of the tubular members 61 and 62. Moreover, inthe event that one or all of the tubular members take the steppedconfiguration shown for tubular member 62, the plate 64 could be removedentirely therefrom, in which event the streamlets of water could bedirected to strike the inner walls of member 62 and/or preferablyshoulders 63.

It must be realized that the several devices thus described are quitedistinct from a structure comprising multiple aerating units combinedinto a single structure; and this consideration arises when it isrealized that the essence of the invention resides not only in formingindividual bubbly streams, but in such a use of the available waterpressure as to produce the maximum 'possible amount of foam which thenflows with decreased velocity from the outlet discharge end. Thus,referringto the embodiment ofFigure 5 for instance, if all the orificesin the aerator diaphragm but one should somehow. be closed, then thestreamlet issuing from that one open orifice will issue from the saidorifice at a much higher velocity than it would otherwise have issued.Due to great friction, part of the water energy would be wasted duringthe flow through the single orifice, and at this greatly increasedvelocity, the resistance afforded by the mixing means in the casingwould be much less, and the aerated water discharged, since it flowsmuch faster, would tend to retain bubbles therein to a much lesserextent, i.e. the character of the stream will have changed.

In other words, the increase of surface of contact between air andwater, which is obtained by the division of the water into a pluralityof relatively low velocity streamlets as compared to the velocity of asingle streamlet of the same cross-section, would cease to exist underthese circumstances, the effects of overlapping streams will no longerbe avoided as the velocities of several streams would be superposed andconcentrated into the single stream, and the efiective Water breaking,mixing and the aerating space, will be greatly reduced in respect to theincreased volume of water through that space.

Thus, as has been described previously, in order to produce a maximumamount of foam flowing at very low velocity and having a very largecross-sectional area at the discharge, it is necessary first to providea plurality of orifices in the diaphragm, so dimensioned that theaggregate circumferences of said orifices will be many times thecircumference of a single orifice delivering the same amount of water;and secondly, these orifices should be so arranged with respect to oneanother that the streamlets are distinctly spaced from one another andtend to overlap very little or not at all as they strike and flowthrough extended resistance means provided within the aerator.

In actual practice, it has been found that the issuing bubbly stream orstreams at the point of discharge should have a total cross-sectionalarea at least eighteen times the cross-sectional area of the aggregateorifices in the diaphragm for the first 18 mm. of apertured area in saiddiaphragm. When the aggregate openings in the diaphragm exceed theaforementioned 18 mm. the mix ing and discharge openings of the aeratorcan be adapted to deliver a bubbly stream of less than eighteen timesthe cross-sectional area of the total openings of the diaphragm, thisincrease in total openings in the diaphragm tending to decrease theamount of air entrained by each streamlet. It will be appreciated thatthese particular figures relate to water pressures normally availablefor domestic use.

The relationship may also be expressed by stating that the aeratordiaphragm should preferably include a plurality of apertures fordividing the water and increasing the surface of contact of that dividedwater with air; and the circumference of each such aperture in thediaphragm should be less than the diameter of a single orifice having anarea equal to the aggregate cross-sectional area of the apertures insaid diaphragm. Moreover, the mixing means in the aerator and thedischarge end of that aerator should be so dimensioned that thedischarged bubbly stream has an etiective cross-section equivalent to anarea having a circumference at least four times the circumference of theaforementioned single orifice. By adhering to one or the other of theserelationships, the individual aerated streams formed within theaerator-- overlapping very little or not at allwill result in a finaldischarge having excellent aeration characteristics due to a muchgreater cross-sectional stream area than has been possible in commercialaerators or aerating shower heads known heretofore.

It will be appreciated, of course, that the foregoing description ismeant to be illustrative only and that many variations will be suggestedto those skilled in the art. All such variations as are in accord withthe principles described are meant to fall within the scope of theappended claims.

I claim to have invented:

1. In a water aerator adapted to deliver an aerated bubbly stream havinga casing adapted to be secured to a source of water under pressure, adiaphragm having apertures adjacent the upstream end of the casing, aresistance element spaced from the diaphragm and in the path of thewater therefrom, air inlet means provided in said casing providing afree inlet for the passage of air from outside the casing to the spacebetween the diaphragm and the resistance element, the improvementcomprising the diaphragm having a plurality of spaced aperturesproviding a means for dividing an inlet stream of water into a pluralityof spaced, individual, streamlets, said resistance element having anextended area relative to the apertures in the diaphragm, the aperturespacing being such that each individual streamlet passes through thespace between the diaphragm and the resistance ele ment, then throughthe resistanceelement wherein the streamlet of water is mixed with airproducing an individual aerated Water streamlet, then leaves saidresistance element as an individual aerated water streamletnon-overlapping with any one of the adjacent plurality of streamlets,and means coalescing streamlets that leave said resistance element toform at least one coherent bubbly stream.

2. A water aerator as defined in claim 1 in which the last-named meanscombines the individual streamlets fed thereto into a single outputstream.

3. A water aerator as defined in claim 1 in which the resistance elementis a screen.

4. A water aerator as defined in claim 1 in which the resistance elementincludes a plurality of spaced tubes, one for each streamlet leaving thediaphragm through which the streamlet passes and in which it is brokenup.

5. A water aerator as defined in claim 4 in which the resistance elementalso includes a bafile in each tube.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,912,113 Aghnides May 30, 1933 2,210,846 Aghnides Aug. 6, 19402,247,310 Rockwood a- June 24, 1941 2,316,832 Aghnides Apr. 20, 19432,448,792 Fraser Sept. 7, 1948 2,811,340 Aghnides Oct. 29, 1957

